For one of the dishes my husband and I made together last weekend, we needed fresh basil. When we were at Whole Foods, I saw a basil plant and immediately was drawn to it. Just a few pence more — truly, it was 50 pence more for a whole plant instead of picked basil in a bag — I knew it had to come home with us. I grew up with my mom growing herbs in the backyard, so she used to just send me outdoors to pick the rosemary, cilantro or any of the other ingredients she grew and needed that night.

Urban living has meant my green spaces have mostly been the likes of Hyde Park {and of course, Central and Washington Square when living in New York}. It does always seem like the grass is greener, as despite this incredible city I catch myself longing for a big open yard with much space to grow anything my heart desires and the climate allows. Luckily, we do have some small trees and bushes outside our building, and I sometimes use some of the leaves for centerpieces (!).

There are great options to bring these sweet herbs indoors {plus plants add so much life to any space}. I’m interested in projects like this and this, but for right now I have planted our sweet little plant in a terracotta pot fit for the countertop. With a little water based white paint, I wrote “basil” in script and it dried virtually clear. I went over it a few times and love the way you can read the name of the herb without it shouting at you in a bright paint. A little wrap of some raffia up top in a bow makes it a cute, simple addition to our kitchen.

All you need, plus some scissors to cut the raffia… and your herbs!

{We used a lot of basil this weekend, I need to prune the extra tall stems!}

Do you ever have that “aghhhh” moment when you look into your kitchen cabinets? No? Just me then? Despite my best attempts at keeping our shelves orderly, inevitably it comes falling down (sometimes literally falling on me) by the end of the week.

It’s also immensely scary when we have guests coming in for the weekend, and are running around organizing at the eleventh hour. It’s best for me — and my sanity — if we keep it as together as possible regularly.

During my last fit of reorganization, I realized that most of our cabinet goods fell into one of a few categories. Plus, living in an apartment means we don’t have a huge kitchen space so we are limited in what we keep. I wanted a clean, natural look so I invested in rectangular wicker baskets that fit our space.

Since the baskets aren’t clear, I made some simple labels with cursive and a navy sharpie. I also found a credit card size self-laminating pouch so the labels kept their luster with all the use they’re sure to get with pulling the baskets down. Using a handheld hole punch, I threaded a thicker ivory ribbon through the holes and around the handle. Ta-da! Easy to read, store and keep clean. Even my husband is relieved.